


Sobering Up

by Rosalix_Archangel



Series: The Caligula Effect: Overdose Addiction [1]
Category: The Caligula Effect (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, How Do I Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26507206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosalix_Archangel/pseuds/Rosalix_Archangel
Summary: Do you know that moment when you wake up from a nightmare? When your body jolts and your breath gets caught in your throat? Sometimes you get that feeling during a moment when you know your life will never be the same.
Series: The Caligula Effect: Overdose Addiction [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927171
Kudos: 6





	Sobering Up

A perfect spring day, fitting for the perfect graduation ceremony. The cherry blossoms were perfectly in bloom, their falling petals creating a picturesque scenery on the school campus. It was such a shame that the ceremony was held in the auditorium instead of outside, but that was what the school had decided. Currently the entire student body was congregated in neat uniform rows, sitting perfectly still on their chairs. 

Ritsuka Shikishima was just another average student swimming in a sea of other average students. She was aware of her surroundings, knew why she was here in this place and what was supposed to happen. However her mind felt drugged and foggy, as if there was something being repressed. No matter how hard she tried to grasp that itch in the back of her mind, it just kept getting away from her. Since she had been preoccupied, Ritsuka half heartedly paid attention to the female student standing on stage and their speech.

The person who came next onstage was a male student, the representative for all the graduating students. He replied with a ‘yes’ and walked up the steps to speak. Just like before, she barely noticed a word that had been spoken, Ritsuka guessed it was just another generic graduation speech about becoming adults and experiencing the real world. 

Time passed and she was soon called to give her own speech. Ritsuka registered the summons, but her body was moving as if on autopilot. It almost felt like she was watching the events from inside a dream. 

Standing before her classmates, Ritsuka didn’t feel anything with their gazes on her. Which was strange, she thought that she would at least feel something, whether it would be nervousness or excitement. Instead she felt empty.

Her mouth opened, and words came out. It was another generic speech about making memories and enjoying their high school years. With every word spoken, her gut feeling that things were wrong grew. She felt as if the world was wrong in some way.

With her speech completed, the representative for the incoming first years was next. Ritsuka robotically walked towards the steps off the stage, her eyes turned down and her face blank. But she stopped, she paused the moment she heard the new student’s ‘yes’ to being called onstage. The new student representative’s reply… was practically an exact copy of the upperclassman who just graduated. Now that she was really paying attention, the announcer even repeated the same name: Kensuke Hibiki.

Lifting her head, she turned around and stared at the boy walking towards her direction. The glare on his glasses gave him a menacing aura that matched the intense staring he was doing back at her. 

A flicker appeared, like a glitch in a program. The boy, Kensuke, his face was covered partly by a strange black mask. 

Ritsuka’s heart stopped, she felt her eyes widen in shock. Sensing that something was terribly wrong, she redirected her attention to the student body, wondering if anyone else was noticing the same thing. To her despair, sprinkled among the crowd were others like Kensuke. Some had similar black masks and others had completely different ones. Some of those students even had limbs that looked inhuman. But despite the strange sight in front of her, no one was reacting at all.

Her breathing escalated, she was close to hyperventilating. This didn’t make any sense… none of this made any sense at all. It was like the world had become wrong in just a split second, like her reality had been shattered to pieces. 

“So you noticed…” Ritsuka’s heart practically jumped out of her chest. Kensuke, or rather the monster wearing Kensuke’s skin, had acknowledged her reaction. “That’s unfortunate senpai.”

The brunette jolted, it sounded as if she had committed a heinous crime. As if it was an error that she noticed these anomalies. She felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to freeze. Ritsuka hesitantly turned her head and saw one of the teachers… only his face was shifting and changing like static on a monitor.

That was it, she couldn’t take it anymore.

Lurching back from the touch she shrieked. Not caring if others thought she was acting insane, she jumped off the stage and sprinted straight towards the exit. She could hear the other ‘students’ whispering as if she was the crazy one, but she didn’t care. Her main priority was to escape, to find a way out of this insanity.

Unknown to her there were a handful of students who weren’t just mindless sheep inside the auditorium that witnessed the spectacle. They took interest in Ritsuka’s reaction, but unlike the hysterical girl that ran away, most of them knew what had just happened to her.

Ritsuka Shikishima had just ‘graduated’ from the world.


End file.
